


A Field of Cornflowers

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AU, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-02-20 16:59:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2436155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Achievement City is ruled by a king and his three sons, but no one has seen the three princes, who have been locked up in the palace since birth. So when it is announced that the three future rulers are to be married to three lucky people, everyone in the city is excited and wants to be one of the three who captures the eye of a prince. But not everyone likes the royal family, and when a rebel group forms a plan to assassinate the princes, everything is turned upside down—especially when a rebel and a prince start to fall for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for a while now and I've finally written it! I'm still fairly new to the fandom, so sorry for any inaccuracies... Also I don't swear much so there probably won't be that much swearing :/  
> Enjoy~

Achievement City. The city where everyone lived together peacefully and in harmony, where people could chase after their dreams and expect them to come true. Or so the rumors say.

The city wasn’t very big, but it was impressive. Buildings made of glass that stretched to the sky, streets filled with dainty cafes and shops wedged between tall office blocks, parks filled with soaring music where people danced every night under the stars and moon. And in the center of the city, the Palace, where the royal family resided.

What people didn’t know from the outside, however, was that hidden under the glamorous appearance were corrupted laws that bound people to the city and a royal family that ruled over everyone. The king was the one who made the decisions, really, but it would be his children who takes over, and their children, and their children, and the never-ending cycle of work and poverty and food shortages for the rest of the city’s population.

It wasn’t surprising that a resistance group had sprung up amongst the dark streets of Achievement City. After all, many had appeared in the history of the city, and were promptly squashed by the king before they could do much damage. What _was_ surprising, though, was how long it had lasted, and how big in numbers it was. True, once in a while, a member would be caught and interrogated, but never someone with the vital information they really needed and lacked. The leaders were smart enough to only give small parts of information to the different people, and nearly no one, save for themselves, knew the entire plan.

The leaders were a big mystery themselves. No one knew who they were or what they looked like. The only thing everyone knew about them was that there were three of them—the Green One, who was always clad in green, the Rose King, who would carry roses on him at all times, and one who was simply called Mogar. Only a handful of people had been lucky enough to meet with them, and if they couldn’t keep their mouths shut, they would be found dead the next day.

The resistance group called themselves Team Lads.

As time went on, more and more people joined this group that kept themselves hidden in the shadows of the city. Even the rich were starting to question the orders of the kings, despite the special treatment they got, and whispers were spreading around the streets, influencing even the lords and ladies close to the king himself. The resistance group was growing rapidly in numbers, and sooner or later, the king himself would make it his personal mission to see it broken up, the leaders executed publicly in front of the palace.

But the leaders of Team Lads had something hidden up their sleeves, and it was only a matter of time before the finale of their plan was put into action.

* * *

 

Gavin checked the time for the seventh time in the past twenty minutes.

“Twelve more minutes,” he muttered to no one in particular. “Gotta get there in twelve minutes.” Giving orders out loud to himself sometimes got him more motivated, he found, and sometimes he could actually make it to his destination on time, or stop procrastinating on his chores and work, or actually get out of bed.

Gavin looked up to check where he was so he could gauge whether he would make it in time. The road he was walking along had oaks lining the sides, casting shadows over the few people walking around. Even though he had roamed the streets of Achievement City for most of his life, he still managed to make a wrong turn somewhere or accidentally go the long way instead of the shortcut. _Good, I’m on the right way. If I walk faster, maybe…_ Speeding up, he turned the corner, and found himself on the ground next to a man who he had apparently walked into.

Maybe if he had actually looked up instead of watching his feet like he always did, he would have seen the man and avoided the crash.

“I’m so sorry.” Gavin stood up, brushing the dust off his jeans, then looked up at the other man. “I should’ve been watching where I was going. I’m really sorry, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. Now that Gavin was looking carefully, he noticed that the man was furrowing his eyebrows and looking at him weirdly. He also noticed how the man gave out an aura of importance, bordering on snobbishness, as if he thought he was better than everyone else. The man himself didn’t seem conscious of it. But the thing he noticed the most was the man’s eyes. They were blue, so, so blue, like the clear sky above them. Or maybe even bluer, Gavin didn’t know.

Bluer-than-the-sky eyes that were trained directly at him.

“What?” he asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious. The man blinked a few times before looking away.

“Nothing. What’s your name?”

Gavin raised an eyebrow. “Why do you want to know?”

He shrugged. “Just curious. I’m… Ryan, by the way.”

Well, Ryan just told him his name, so he should return the favor, right? But Gavin caught the slight hesitation before he had said his name, and was suspicious as he replied.

“I’m Gavin.” He looked down at his watch and saw that he only had six minutes before the meeting started, and he still had a few blocks before he reached the cafe where they usually held the meetings. “Sorry Ryan, I have to go now, or I’ll be late. I’ll see you around!”

A hand on his forearm stopped him as he turned to go, and he jerked his arm back. The contact left a burning feeling along his entire arm, and Gavin subconsciously rubbed the spot where Ryan’s hand had been before. “Wait, before you go can you tell me how to get to the Palace?”

Gavin gave him directions, describing landmarks that would help him along the way. “Why do you want to go there, anyway?” he asked, curious. Most people in the city knew where the Palace was—in the exact middle of the city, surrounded by fountains featuring notable past rulers in gold.

Ryan shrugged. “I’m new to Achievement City. This is only my first day here.”

Gavin checked the time again. Only three more minutes… _Shit._ “Look, I really need to go now… I’m really sorry. Bye!”

He turned around and walked as fast as he could without it seeming suspicious to those around him. But as he walked away, he thought he heard Ryan mutter, “Gavin, huh?”

* * *

 

“You’re late,” a voice called out as Gavin entered the small room at the back of the cafe. “Again.”

“Sorry Michael,” he mumbled. “I won’t be late again.”

Someone else laughed a little. “You said that last time. And the time before that. And–”

“Shut up, Ray,” the first voice snapped, before returning back to the topic he was talking about before. “As I was saying, the king will announce to the public for his sons to be wed in a week. Then they will have a month to choose a bride. I say we strike at the end of the month, all three at once. We can take one each. Then we target the king.”

Gavin silently took a seat beside Michael, who was standing up and presenting the information he had acquired. They had already gone over the plan a few times, but never in much detail. Now they were slowly filling in the blank spots, adding in more detail as more information trickled in.

Michael finished, and sat down, nodding to Ray to start, who stood up. “The king is getting more active about our resistance group. He’s starting to have the royal guard hunt us down. No one with vital information has been captured yet, though, and more people are joining every day. At the rate this is going, in a couple of months, most of the city will be on our side. There’ll be enough people to forcefully overthrow the royal family.”

“Yeah, but in a couple of months,” Gavin pointed out. “If the princes are getting married in a month or so, we’ll have to assassinate them before then, or we’ll have to take down their wives with them, and that’s another three people.”

“Which is kind of what I said.” Michael rolled his eyes.

“I was just saying,” Ray defended himself, then turned to Gavin. “Your turn.”

“I was checking out the Palace before I came here. That’s why I was late, because I had to walk all the way from there.” And he also walked into that Ryan guy, but that wasn’t important. “They had some sort of event in the gardens for the general public, which is why I could get in. The main building has quite a few back doors, plus that one huge front door. I’m guessing the back doors are for the servants. We could maybe use one of those.”

Michael and Ray were nodding, and seemed to be in deep thought.

“We’ll have to ask Joel about that. He knows the layout and inside of the Palace better than we do.” Ray frowned and started fiddling with the papers in front of him. “He’s caught up today, though. The king has finally allowed for the princes to come outside, and get familiar with the city. Joel was supposed to look after them and make sure they didn’t get lost but one of them did anyway.”

Joel was their informant, as well as being the private attendant to the three princes. He was their main source of information—he was close to the entire royal family, and was trusted with information that other servants didn’t get. If he and Ray hadn’t been childhood friends, Team Lads probably wouldn’t have formed, or at least wouldn’t have been as well informed as they were now.

Gavin wasn’t sure why he was helping them, though. Joel’s entire family worked in the Palace and served the royal family, and they had been for many generations. Because of his family’s long history with the king, he was treated better than most. Gavin remembered asking him once, but Joel had just shrugged and said, “I have my reasons.”

“Well–” Gavin started, but was interrupted by the door opening and Ray’s mother sticking her head in.

“You guys ready to go? I’m closing up the cafe now.” The cafe they held their meetings in belonged to Ray’s family, so their meetings often ended with his mother or father closing up the cafe.

The three stood and gathered all their papers, making sure they didn’t leave anything behind, then left the room. Gavin internally groaned at the thought of walking back, but he was still saving up for a car, and it wasn’t that far anyway. He waved to Michael, Ray and Ray’s mother as he walked out, the little bell on the door tinkling as it swung shut.

It was colder outside than he had expected, and Gavin pulled his jacket tighter around him. Even though it was spring already, a little bit of the past winter still remained during the evenings.

His mind wandered as he walked, the rhythmic pounding of his footsteps echoing in his thoughts, until they reached one image—the blue eyes from that Ryan guy. Gavin shook his head and tried to clear his mind. He probably wouldn’t ever see Ryan again, so what was the point of always thinking about him? He _had_ said that it was his first day at the city, so he probably would be gone in a few days.

But even though Gavin tried his hardest to get rid of the image that was burned into his mind, even trying to replace the thought by thinking about other things like ponies and fields of daisies, the blue eyes haunted his thoughts all the way home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UM I should’ve said in the first chapter, I usually update multichaps quite slowly, so sorry about the wait. A warning for the future, though, I’ll probably update every month or so, or if I’m fast, every couple of weeks.

The day that Team Lads had been waiting for had finally arrived—the day King Gustavo announced to the public that the princes were going to get married. Gavin had agreed with the other two that they were to meet up outside the bookshop opposite the palace. That way, if one of them was late (Michael and Ray had simultaneously looked at Gavin, and he had thrown up his hands in defense), the others could still hear the announcement and maybe get a look at the princes. It wasn’t compulsory for them to see what they looked like, but they wanted to know who they would be killing.

Gavin was late, as usual, and was making his way to the palace. The announcement had already started, but maybe he could make it in time to see what the princes looked like. All he knew about the one he was assigned to kill was that his name was James and he was the second oldest, behind Geoff and in front of Jack.

Maybe the reason he was late was because he didn’t want to see the person he was going to kill. He didn’t particularly enjoy the actual _killing_ part, but he wanted to change Achievement City, and this seemed like the only way right now. When he created Team Lads with Michael and Ray, they all agreed that they all would need to kill people in the future, and he knew what he was getting into. But that didn’t mean he enjoyed it. It just had to be done.

Sometimes he thought that if he didn’t know the person he was killing then it would be easier—and it was, mostly. He couldn’t ever imagine killing Michael or Ray, or Joel, or anyone else close to him. He had never had a conversation with James or any of the other princes, so it was easier. To him, James was just an illusion, a faraway person he didn’t know, and didn’t need to know.

Looking up, he realized he was a block from the bookstore. _Nearly there._ But as he turned the corner, he was met with a wave of people drifting towards him, and he groaned.

He had _just_ missed it. The people were coming from the square in front of the palace, and were walking away after the announcement.

“ _Bollocks_!” He kicked the sidewalk, ignoring the strange looks the people passing by were giving him. Why did stuff like this always happen to _him_? Why not anyone else?

Someone grabbed his arm just as he was about to go on another kicking spree. “Gavin! Where the _fuck_ were you?”

Gavin turned around and was met with the annoyed faces of Michael and Ray. Whoops.

“I mean, we expected you to be late, but to miss the whole thing? Wow, Gavin, just when I thought you couldn’t get any worse, you turn around and pull this out onto us.”

“I’m sorry, okay? I… I was…”

“You were coming but something along the way distracted you, like usual?”

He winced. That didn’t happen _all_ the time…

“Look, we’re just going to go now. You can go back home yourself.” Even _Ray_ was angry at him?

Without another word, they turned around and walked off. He knew if he tried to follow them they would just get angrier at him, so he stayed there, in front of the bookshop.

“Gavin?” He looked around when he heard his name, surprised when he saw Ryan from the other day. “Gavin, what are you doing here?”

“I, uh, I came to see the announcement?” Looking around, Gavin realized most people were already gone, and he was one of the last ones left. Ryan raised an eyebrow, like he didn’t believe him.

“Yeah, okay.” To his surprise, Ryan didn’t push any further. “Are you busy right now?”

Gavin frowned, confused. “Not really, no… Why?”

“Because I was wondering if you would like to get some coffee with me.” Ryan scratched the back of his head, eyes not meeting his. He felt his face heat up and coughed so the other man wouldn’t notice.

“S–Sure,” he replied, hoping the blond didn’t catch the shake in his voice. “Do you have anywhere in mind?”

“You’ll see.” Ryan winked at him, and he swore he felt something inside him flip. “Come on, it’s not too far.”

They walked side by side, making small talk, hands swinging between them. Occasionally, their hands would brush, and Gavin would jerk his hand away every time it did. At one point, he nearly tripped on the pavement, stumbling and almost crashing into a lamppost. Ryan laughed, and Gavin just stared, entranced by the sound coming out of the other man’s lips. He tried to play off his redness as embarrassment, but he wasn’t sure if Ryan believed him or not.

Ryan stopped in front of a small cafe. The sign above the door read _LB Cafe_. Gavin wondered what LB stood for.

They were hit by a blast of warm air and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. A bell tinkled when the door opened, and a man with curly brown hair and glasses greeted them when they got to the counter.

“Welcome to LB Cafe! What would you like?” A quick skim over the menu just confused Gavin even more. What were ‘Haywood’s Milk’s and ‘Dragon Gold’s? He let Ryan order for both of them. He probably had been here before anyway.

They chose a table at the back of the cafe, away from any wandering eyes from the few people outside on the streets. The drinks came fairly quickly, and Gavin blew on his before taking a sip. He immediately fell in love with the coffee—it was smooth and creamy, perfect for the chilly weather lately. He could feel foam above his lip and tried to lick it off, with no success. He looked around for a tissue but before he could find anything, a finger swiped across his lip, wiping the foam away.

He looked up to see Ryan with his finger in his mouth. The blond stared back at him, never breaking eye contact.

Ryan’s eyes were beautiful. Gavin already knew this, but up close, he could make out all the small details. The shades of blue were ever-changing, and the outside edges of the blueness seemed to fade into gray. In the end he had to tear his gaze away from those bright orbs, scared he would be forever hypnotized by them if he looked for longer.

“You have beautiful eyes,” he blurted out without thinking. When he realized what he had said, he tried to backpedal and maintain at least _some_ of his dignity. “I mean, the color? It’s really blue and… Uh, just forget about it.”

His face felt like it was on fire, and he hoped Ryan couldn’t tell, even though it was probably really obvious. He looked up tentatively, and was surprised to see the blond looking at the table (or his hands?), and a small smile and slightly darker cheeks. _He’s so cute_ , a voice whispered in his brain, and Gavin tried to push it away in case Ryan was a mind reader or something.

The silence was starting to get kind of awkward, and Gavin looked around for something to start up a conversation. Before he could find anything, though, Ryan spoke up.

“So, uh… There’s going to be a fair in the park close by in a couple of days, apparently. Do you… Do you want to go with me?”

Gavin’s eyes widened, and without thinking, he blurted out, “So, a date then?”

“Only… Only if you want it to be.” Ryan wouldn’t meet his eyes, and this time he was _definitely_ blushing. Gavin smiled softly to himself.

“Yeah. Yeah I do.”

Their smiles stayed on their faces as Ryan walked him home and promised him he would pick him up in three days, and Gavin waved as he left until he turned a corner and couldn’t see him anymore.

And for the second time in a week, Gavin fell asleep thinking about blue eyes and a blindingly beautiful smile.

 

* * *

 

Michael and Ray had seemed to have forgiven him by the next Team Lads meeting, though it might have helped that Gavin was actually on time today. Joel was there too and talking softly to Ray, probably catching up on everything he missed from last time.

“Gustavo’s already asking the royal families of nearby cities to see if anyone wants to marry his sons. I think one or two have shown interest. He plans to hold a huge ball to see if any of them are suitable. We could probably sneak in and do some inner surveillance.”

Everyone nodded, glad to have some sort of plan to act on.

“So…” Michael leaned forward on his elbows. “Who’s going to go do this one?”

Gavin looked around the table. He wanted to go—the idea of infiltrating a ball sent a thrill of excitement through him—but he wasn’t sure if he was allowed. He hadn’t been exactly doing _well_ in his latest missions, after all.

No one was speaking up, though, so he took his chance. “Could I go? I won’t mess up this one, I promise.”

The others rolled their eyes, then Ray nodded. “Fine. But if you mess this one up, you’re not doing any more missions until we actually assassinate the royal family.”

Gavin nodded quickly, making him feel a little dizzy. “I won’t, I promise!”

Joel smirked, making him gulp.

“Just wait till you see your clothes for this mission. You’re gonna _love_ them.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry i said a month but it's been like 4 and i have no excuse except for school  
> also warning: fluctuating writing style because mine changes all the time without warning so if the style changes halfway through the sentence either it just changed or that's where the huge gap of time is

The fair was a lot bigger than Gavin thought it would be. Instead of the couple of stalls and few clunky rides he had imagined, the fair was an enormous maze of bright lights and food stalls. And it was loud – people were talking and laughing and singing everywhere around him.

He tightened his grip on Ryan’s hand and followed him through the crowds. He had no idea where they were going or where they were, so all he could do was blindly trust the other man.

“What do you want to do?”

Gavin shrugged. It was ages since he last went to a fair, and he didn’t mind what they did. He looked around, hoping to find something that would catch his eye.

“What about…” he pointed at a rollercoaster that didn’t seem too extreme, “that?”

“Sure, okay.”

Up close, the ride didn’t seem as tame as he thought. Gavin was starting to have second thoughts about going on the rollercoaster, but when he voiced them out loud, Ryan only said “You suggested it, you can’t back out now.”

The line inched forwards until finally, they were in front of the ride. They got into one of the carts and Gavin was about to turn around to say something to Ryan, but then the cart jerked forwards and Gavin’s head hit the back of the seat and then he was too busy screaming out garbled words and they were falling and twisting left and right and everywhere and was Ryan even beside him anymore and–

And then the ride was over, and Gavin could breathe again.

He looked over to Ryan, who was still strangling the bar with his fingers and clenching his eyes shut. “It’s over now, Ryan,” Gavin said, then stretched his arms. “That was fun, we should do it again!”

Ryan shook his head slowly. “Never… Never again…”

They ended up wandering around all the stalls again. Ryan seemed to have recovered somewhat, and Gavin was drinking in all the sights and smells and sounds and _everything_.

“Can I try the darts?” Ryan asked, and Gavin nodded. The blond stood in front of the target and winked at him before throwing the darts. All three somehow managed to end up in the center circle, although Gavin swore he didn’t even aim before throwing them.

“Which one do you want?” Ryan pointed at all the prizes lined up along the wall at the back.

“No, it’s okay, you don’t have to give me the prize,” Gavin protested, but Ryan shook his head.

“Nope, you choose one.”

He sighed in defeat and looked up at all the prizes. Most of them seemed to be stuffed animals, and since Ryan had gotten all three of his darts in the middle, he could choose from the top row, where all the huge teddy bears were.

Something green was poking out from under the teddy bear at the end, and he pointed to it. “What’s that?”

The person working at the stall pulled it out. It was a green monster of some sort, with a long, upright body, four legs, and a square heard with a sad-looking expression. “You want this one?”

Gavin nodded. Ryan chuckled at his choice, and he huffed indignantly. “I wasn’t going to choose a teddy bear, you know.”

That just made Ryan chuckle harder.

 

* * *

 

It was getting late into the night, and they had been on most of the not-so-scary rides in the fair. They were sharing a bag of candy floss and walking around aimlessly (again). Apparently the fireworks were about to start soon.

They came to a stop in front of the Ferris wheel. The line wasn’t as long anymore, so they waited to go on. Gavin craned his neck to look at the huge wheel. It was _enormous_ , easily the tallest ride in the entire fair. The gondolas seemed small—only big enough to fit two or three people.

Ryan led him to the next gondola that stopped, sweeping his arm towards the rickety metal frame with a lazy smile. “After you.”

They sat opposite each other, Gavin’s green stuffed toy next to him, and waited for the door to be locked.

And then they were going up, up, up.

“What did you think of today?” Ryan asked.

Gavin smiled. “It was great. Thanks for taking me out and this–” he held up the stuffed toy, “and everything, really. I had loads of fun.”

“That’s good, then.”

They looked out the window, watching the city beneath them grow smaller and smaller. All the people in the fair, on the streets, walking around, each so far away. It was like Gavin and Ryan were in their own separate world.

“We should do this again,” Gavin said quietly. They were nearly at the top now, almost high enough to be amongst the stars.

Ryan nodded. It seemed like they shouldn’t make too much noise, shouldn’t break this magical moment.

The Ferris wheel stopped just as they were at the top. There was a second of silence, then a loud _BANG!_ and colors filling the sky. The fireworks lit up Ryan’s face, in red, green, gold, white.

Ryan’s fingers brushed against Gavin’s cheek—cool and shaky, sending tingles of electricity down his spine. His heart was bursting from his ribcage, and he was blinking too much and not enough all at once. He couldn’t breathe.

“Is this… Is this okay?” The whisper filled the gondola. Gavin felt his head nod slightly. They were leaning forwards, so close that Gavin could smell something minty and fresh and sharp and yet still faintly sweet, something that reminded him of the grass outside right after a burst of summer rain–

And then the gondola jolted, jerking them back into reality. The little world of _them_ was destroyed, the moment lost. The last of the fireworks were starting to fade away, fizzling out in the black sky.

The gondola carried them back down to the ground again in a heavy silence, and Gavin tried to keep his mind from imagining what would have happened if they’d had a minute longer, a second longer.

He found himself wishing that their moment hadn’t been interrupted, that they had closed that small distance between them.

And honestly, that scared him the most.

 

* * *

 

Gavin was walking through the small field, a toffee apple in each hand, when he realized Ryan was talking to someone. As he approached them, he could make out hurried whispers and furious nodding, then the other person briskly walked away.

“Who was that?” He stared after the retreating back.

Ryan shook his head. “No one important. He was just telling me that my father… Wanted me to return home.”

“I’m sorry,” Gavin quickly apologized. “I didn’t know you had to be somewhere else right now.”

“It’s fine, I told him that I was going to stay the night somewhere else, anyway.”

Gavin shrugged, then handed him his toffee apple. “Do you want me to walk you there, or…? You’re still quite new to the city, right?”

“Yeah, that would be great.” Ryan recited the address and Gavin nodded. The place was in the fancier side of the city, but wasn’t too far away.

Gavin didn’t know when it happened, but as they walked, Ryan took his hand—or he took his, he wasn’t sure—and they walked the rest of the way with their fingers loosely entwined. There was hardly anyone out by now, and the sounds from the fair faded into the distance. It wasn’t awkward, like Gavin thought it would be, and he was relieved by that. They just clicked, like finally finding the last piece of a puzzle.

When they reached Ryan’s apartment, Ryan was enthusiastically telling him about his two brothers, and Gavin was sharing his stories with Michael and Ray.

“Oh,” Ryan said when he realized where they were. “Do you want to come up?”

“Sure.” He was curious to see what kind of place Ryan lived in, and it was getting kind of cold outside.

Ryan made them both a steaming mug of hot chocolate and Gavin looked around the apartment as he sipped his. It was clean and spacious, but it seemed like it wasn’t lived in much. But then again, Ryan _was_ new to Achievement City.

They sat next to each other on the couch, and Gavin leaned slightly onto Ryan.

“Can I tell you something?” Ryan asked. Gavin hummed, nodding slightly. “I have a problem—well, quite a few, actually—and I need your advice.”

Gavin nearly laughed. He was the worst person to come to for advice.

“My father,” Ryan began, “is a powerful man. He’s in charge of a large… Company, you could say. And he intends to pass the company onto me and my brothers when we’re older. But I don’t want to take on all that responsibility.”

Gavin frowned. He didn’t know what he could say to help.

“And now he’s pressuring me to get married already. I don’t want to commit to someone for my life just because of a business deal, y’know?” His voice dropped. “I don’t want to marry someone I don’t love.”

“Have you told your father?” Gavin asked. He honestly couldn’t imagine someone being forced to be with a stranger for the rest of their lives.

Ryan laughed bitterly. “Countless times. And every time, he just gives me a few more files about marriage candidates. Either that or complains about how old I’m getting.”

“How old are you anyway?”

“Only twenty-one.” He snorted. Gavin felt a wave of relief wash over him. At least now he knew that Ryan wasn’t way older than him.

Ryan yawned, and Gavin glanced at the clock on the wall. Nearly one a.m. “It’s pretty late… I should go now.”

“Or you could just stay the night,” Ryan suggested. Gavin knew he didn’t have any important plans for the next day, and he didn’t really want to leave…

He nodded. “Sure.”

“You can sleep on the bed.” Ryan led him to a sparsely decorated room, save for a dresser and a huge bed in the center of the room. He pointed to a door to the side. “Bathroom’s over there, if you need it.”

“Wait, where will you sleep?” Gavin wondered if there was another bedroom, but the apartment didn’t seem to have any.

Ryan chuckled nervously, and Gavin narrowed his eyes. “It’s fine, I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“No no, you sleep on the bed and I’ll sleep on the couch. I don’t want to take your bed away from you.”

Ryan crossed his arms. “You’re the guest, I’m not going to let you sleep on the couch.”

“Then why don’t we both share the bed? It’s definitely big enough.” Only when the words were out of his mouth did Gavin actually think about what he had proposed. He could feel the tips of his ears getting hotter, and just as he opened his mouth to add something on to defend himself, Ryan nodded.

“Yeah, that could work. But I’m taking the right side of the bed.”

Gavin grinned.

“You can shower first, by the way,” Ryan added. Gavin got into the bathroom before realizing he had nothing to change into. He poked his head out glanced around the room. Ryan wasn’t there anymore, but instead, there was a pile of clothes in front of the door sitting on top of a fluffy white towel. Smiling, Gavin took them in and went into the shower.

That night, they lay next to each other, limbs slightly entwined (because Ryan’s bed was a bit smaller than they thought and they were sharing body heat because it was cold and Gavin was running out of excuses for why he was cuddling up to the other man). The moonlight streamed softly through the window, filtered by the swaying curtains, making everything look silver.

Just as Gavin was drifting off, he swore he could feel something warm press upon his forehead. But that could’ve just been his imagination, because by then he couldn’t tell between dream and reality. And if it _was_ all a dream, he hoped he would never wake up, hoped that this moment would last forever, because everything felt so perfect, felt so right, like it was all meant to be.

_I could get used to this,_ he thought.

And then a warm, warm oblivion.


End file.
